Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Cloud feedback depends on Southern Ocean salinity
Published: 2022-05-20
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The uncertainty in equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) has remained persistently unchanged for the past four decades1–4, with cloud feedback3,5–11 as a primary source of the uncertainty. Here we show that a key component of this uncertainty is rooted in the impact of base-state Southern Ocean salinity on cloud feedback. Sea surface salinity in the sinking zone of the Southern Ocean (45o-60oS) [...]
Geometry and growth of syn-tectonic plutons emplaced in thrust shear zones: Insights from Abu Ziran Pluton, Egypt
Published: 2022-05-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Coupling of deformation and magmatism has been reported in several old orogenic belts, particularly along thrust faults and shear zones. The syn-kinematic plutons in exhumed shear zones offer the best opportunity to understand the complex relationship between magmatism and regional deformation. The present paper investigates the geometry and internal structure of granite plutons emplaced in [...]
The microwave snow grain size: a new concept to predict satellite observations over snow-covered regions
Published: 2022-05-20
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Satellite observations of snow-covered regions in the microwave range have the potential to retrieve essential climate variables such as snow height. This requires a precise understanding of how microwave scattering is linked to snow microstructural properties (density, grain size, grain shape and arrangement). This link has so far relied on empirical adjustments of the theories, precluding the [...]
Linking silicon isotopic signatures with diatom communities
Published: 2022-05-20
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The use of silicon isotope ratios (expressed as d30Si) as a paleolimnological proxy in lacustrine systems requires a better understanding of the role of lake processes in setting the d30Si values of dissolved Si (dSi) in water and in diatom biogenic silica (bSi). We determined the d30Si of modern dSi (d30SidSi) and bSi (d30SibSi) in three lakes in Lassen Volcanic National Park (LAVO), [...]
Deep Compressed Seismic Learning for fast location and moment tensor inferences with natural and induced seismicity
Published: 2022-05-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Fast detection and characterization of seismic sources is crucial for decision-making and warning systems that monitor natural and induced seismicity. However, besides the laying out of ever denser monitoring networks of seismic instruments, the incorporation of new sensor technologies such as Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) further challenges our processing capabilities to deliver short [...]
Probabilistic Assessment of Antarctic Thermomechanical Structure: Impacts on Ice Sheet Stability
Published: 2022-05-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistical Methodology
Uncertainty in present-day glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) rates represents at least 44% of the total gravity-based ice mass balance signal over Antarctica. Meanwhile, physical couplings between solid Earth, sea level and ice dynamics enhance the dependency of the spatiotemporally varying GIA signal on three-dimensional variations in mantle rheology. Improved knowledge of thermomechanical [...]
Centering Equity in the Nation's Weather, Water and Climate Services
Published: 2022-05-20
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Water, weather, and climate affect everyone. However, their impacts on various communities can be very different based on who has access to essential services and environmental knowledge. At the same time, structural discrimination, including racism and other forms of privileging and exclusion, affects people's lives and health, with ripples across all sectors of society. In the United States, [...]
Caravan - A global community dataset for large-sample hydrology
Published: 2022-05-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
High-quality datasets are essential to support hydrological science and modeling. Several CAMELS (Catchment Attributes and Meteorology for Large-sample Studies) datasets exist for specific countries or regions, however these datasets lack standardization, which makes global studies difficult. This paper introduces a dataset called Caravan (a series of CAMELS) that standardizes and aggregates [...]
Defining renewable groundwater use and its relevance to sustainable groundwater management
Published: 2022-05-19
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Groundwater systems are commonly, but variously, defined as renewable or non-renewable based on natural fluxes of recharge or on estimates of aquifer storage and groundwater residence time. However, we show here that the principle of capture challenges simple definitions so that a groundwater system cannot be renewable or non-renewable in and of itself, but only with reference to how the [...]
A Practical Guide to Virtual Outcrop Photogrammetry in Earth Science
Published: 2022-05-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
In 2021, a photogrammetric model of a 7 km coastal cliff section of the Tjörnes Peninsula, NE Iceland was constructed to provide a “virtual geological outcrop” at a spatial resolution of approximately 5 cm or less. Field expedition planning and post-expedition processing were somewhat hampered by a lack of freely accessible guiding resources. This document presents a first-hand case study of [...]
Quantifying excess heavy metal concentrations in drainage basins using conservative mixing models
Published: 2022-05-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
High concentrations of heavy metals and other pollutants in river sediments can have detrimental effects on the ecosystem and humans. The composition of river sediments throughout drainage basins therefore provides important information for environmental monitoring. An obvious first step for using river sediment compositions for monitoring is to quantify natural baseline concentrations. Once [...]
Future projections for the Antarctic ice sheet until the year 2300 with a climate-index method
Published: 2022-05-14
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
As part of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6), the Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP6 (ISMIP6) was devised to assess the likely sea-level-rise contribution from the Earth's ice sheets. Here, we construct an ensemble of climate forcings for Antarctica until the year 2300 based on original ISMIP6 forcings until 2100, combined with climate indices from [...]
Analog experiments in volcanology: towards multimethod, upscaled and integrated models
Published: 2022-05-13
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
For decades scaled analog experiments have improved the understanding of a broad range of multiphase volcanological processes in controlled laboratory environments. Successfully modeled processes include magma flow through magma reservoirs, conduits and sheets, associated crustal deformation, lava flow, volcanic plume dynamics, ash cloud dispersion, pyroclast sedimentation, pyroclastic density [...]
Plant-microbe symbiosis widens the habitability range of the Daisyworld
Published: 2022-05-04
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Plant-microbe symbiosis is pervasive in the Earth's ecosystems and dates back to the early land colonisation by plants. Mutualistic partnership with rhizobia bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi promotes plant nutrition, growth and diversity, impacting important ecosystem functions. However, how the global behaviour and dynamical properties of an ecosystem are modified by plant-microbe symbiosis is [...]
The signature of lithospheric anisotropy at post-subduction continental margins: new insight from XKS splitting analysis in northern Borneo
Published: 2022-05-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
The relative paucity of recent post-subduction environments globally has meant that, so far, little is known about tectonic processes that occur during and after subduction termination, as previously convergent tectonic plates adjust to the new stress regime. The region of Southeast Asia that now encompasses northern Borneo has been host to two sequential episodes of subduction—both now [...]